New York police to wear body cameras

NEW YORK (AFP) – About three dozen police officers will be fitted with body cameras in New York by this weekend, as part of a three-month pilot programme.

The tiny, flat cameras that look like pagers can be clipped on a vest, similar to a tie-clip microphone, and film events as they take place. They are light, and authorities insist they will not hamper the authorities’ work.

“The NYPD body camera programme will increase trust building between the police & community,” the New York Police Department tweeted. Mayor Bill de Blasio hailed the tool as “one of the ways to create a real sense of transparency and accountability – one of the ways we can bring police and community closer together.”

The limited pilot programme comes as the sometimes tense relationship between police and the public came to light during riots over a grand jury’s decision to not press charges against a white policeman for shooting an unarmed black teenager to death in Ferguson, Missouri.